azwhales
This year our baleen whale season is continuing right through June! In the morning we had at least 5 fin whales south of São Miguel Island and we had a nice encounter with 2 adult of these 5. There still seems to be enough food for these whales in our waters, as we observed them going on frequent dives and one also left a bright red poo patch (the red colour comes from the krill they eat) on the surface, giving us a great indication that it has been feeding recently. In the morning we also encountered a couple of groups of bottlenose dolphins, and later small group of common dolphins feeding at the surface together with Cory’s shearwaters and common terns. We had perfect clear calm blue conditions so that all our sightings were perfect!
In the afternoon we had sei whales instead of fin whales, three of them travelling slowly close to us and coming up for one breath at the time and we could really smell them. And in the middle of all the whales our skipper Rui found a leatherback turtle – the largest turtle in the world. We also saw a loggerhead turtle in the beginning of the tour plus two species of dolphins: bottlenose dolphins and we ended the tour with a small group of common dolphins with lots of new born babies! We can repeat the words: all our sightings were perfect once again!
Photos from this morning:
2 fin whales surfacing and blowing together
Fin whales
Fin whale head just before surfacing
Fin whale blow
Bottlenose dolphin “smile”
Bottlenose dolphins in perfect calm water
Bottlenose dolphin dolphin
Crystal clear waters
Common dolphin with a Cory’s shearwater
Photos from the afternoon:
Watching bottlenose dolphins
Sei whale
Sei whale
Sei whale
Sei whale
Leatherback turtle
A baby common dolphin looking at us
A baby common dolphin
Our swimming boat
azwhales
Futurismo Biologists Team
Sandrina Rodrigues
